Through the years we all go through changes in the things we like, be it savoring the food we once loathed or enjoying a show we could never understand. The same stands for colors, we’ve all had a phase where pinks, yellows, and blues were our go-to colors, but with time most of us developed a taste for other palettes altogether.
Whether you’re moving to a new home or just giving your current home a little spruce up, painting the walls with colors that make you happy can brighten up your days. We all know how important colors are, especially when they’ll be on your walls for years to come, you can’t mess it up!

We agree that the options are too many, but you can turn this project into your very own HGTV home renovation show! With our tips for choosing a color scheme for your home, you can have the best time possible with the process.

Walk Through Your Home And Make Notes

You can’t start any task without first taking stock of what you have to work with. In this case, it’s your home and we suggest you walk through the house with a book and start making notes of the things you notice around the house and the other tiny things that come to your head. You can use the following as pointers to make these notes :

  • Number of rooms to be painted.
  • The biggest rooms in the house with respect to area.
  • Rooms that are adjoining, meaning the walls and ceilings touch creating an open plan space with no obstructions in the middle.
  • Central theme and color of the furniture in every room.
  • Carpet color or the color of the stain on your wooden floors.

We asked you to make notes about this because these points will help you figure out a color scheme for your home pretty quickly. It’s obvious enough that some colors don’t go well together, and if certain aspects of your house are a certain color, painting the walls a contrasting color might make your eyes miserable later, and we don’t want that!

Tip: Walk around with a layout of the house, even if it’s rough so that you can make markings/notes on that itself!

Start With Bigger Spaces Or Bolder Colors

As we mentioned before, we all have an idea of the colors we’re drawn towards but what makes choosing a color scheme difficult is the plethora of shades and options. To make the process simpler, we suggest you walk to your largest room and start there; this will most likely be our living room. You can also start at your entryway or your dining room since these are prominent areas of the house too.

Keeping in line with the word “bold” you can then identify the biggest or boldest color schemes in these big rooms, this could include furniture, curtains, or upholstery. You’ll always notice these color schemes scattered around the room which means that you’re drawn towards those colors, so utilize this and pick a color from that! If you’re someone who is more drawn towards neutral shades, you can always get a color wheel and seek out the more subtle versions of the color at hand.

In a scenario that you’re moving to a new home and starting with a blank canvas, you can think of a bold color you like or you’ve always wanted to paint a wall with, so start with that!

Hot tip: Interior Designer Kendall Wilkinson in a piece for HGTV suggests taking cues from the clothing you wear to select colors for your home. According to her, dressing your home in colors that flatter you is the easiest and best trick in the book!

Explore Color Schemes

Do you now have a fair idea of at least one color you want in the bigger spaces of your home? Or do you have a rough idea of a particular scheme that you think will go well? If yes, it’s now time to jump right into color schemes!

There are four broad color schemes that you could use to determine the colors you want to go ahead with for your walls :

1. Monochrome

We’ve all heard of a monochromatic color scheme considering it was quite the trend a few years ago. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t using it in their homes anymore, because monochrome will always be a classic favorite.

Monochromatic color schemes essentially mean using the same color with additions of black or white to darken or lighten it. So if you’re someone who loves a particular color and would like to stick to that color’s hues, then going for a monochromatic color scheme is your best bet!

2. Contrast

A more dramatic color scheme, using a contract color scheme in your room means what the name suggests – using contrasting colors. Such color schemes help spice up a room and add more energy to it which is why it’s always recommended for kids’ playrooms, games areas, and rooms where you’ll have social gatherings. An example of a contract color scheme would be using hues of two contrasting colors like green and blue on different walls in the room.

3. Complementary

Using a complementary color scheme means that you have to use colors that brighten up the color next to it. Confused? Take blue and orange for example, when these are placed next to each other they have a lightening effect on each other, or rather they make each other pop! Complementary color schemes are like contrasting color schemes, but the colors here are total opposites and exist on direct opposite ends of the color spectrum.

Confused between complementary and contrasting color schemes?

Contrasting colors are two colors with a varied amount of shade and tint, but complementary colors are colors that are present on the opposite ends of the color wheel with the same amount of tint and shade!

4. Analogous

We’ve come to the final color scheme that successfully helps to create a soothing effect to the eyes – the analogous color scheme. As the name suggests, it involves colors that fall right next to each other on the color wheel. Examples of such colors include using the color blue with green or purple or using the color yellow with orange or green.

Separate Levels In Your Home

One thing you must not forget is to separate the different levels in your home and treat them as their own entity. Don’t follow the same color scheme for your basement or your first level as you would do for your ground floor. The reason is simple – the rooms in these areas will be different and will most probably have different colors in them, so it’s best to look at what suits each floor better.

We suggest you paint your hallways and landings a lighter and more subtle shade since they act as a connection between different and varying color schemes. This helps create the illusion of a flow which will enhance the overall look of your home.

Follow The 60-30-10 Rule

Ever heard of this rule before? It might just be your saving grace to finding the right colors for your home. A trick given by designer Mark MaCauley, the 60-30-10 rule involves choosing colors and then using the given ratio to decide how much of the room to paint in that color. Confused? Let us explain it to you.

60% of your room should have a dominant color, here 60% stands for your walls. 30% of your room should have the secondary color, so 30% here could be the upholstery, the curtains, a big rug, etc. The remaining 10% of the room can have an accent color or rather a bold color of your choosing. Accessories like pillows, pictures in frames, and small knick-knacks fall under this 10%.

When In Doubt, Go With Neutrals

Choosing colors can be overwhelming, and choosing bold colors can be all the more stressful, after all, it has to go with everything in the room. Painting over a bold color also requires more work than if you just had painted your wall a light shade of cream.

In times like this, it’s best to go with colors that are subtle and won’t overpower the room too much, and neutrals win the lottery here. Painting your walls shades of neutral colors is a safe bet, especially if you have a new home and you haven’t figured out what the furniture will look like yet. You can also always go with white which is why classic and makes rooms look bigger, brighter, and goes with everything!

Tip: Use the Pinterest app to group together images of interiors that catch your eye. You’ll soon notice that the images will have many things in common, which might include color schemes, which will help you understand what you’re drawn towards the most.

Don’t Forget To Sample The Colors

However confident you might be about a particular color working out in your home, always, and we mean always, sample this color out. Buy a small paint swatch from the paint store and apply the chosen colors to the walls of your choice. Don’t forget to paint at least two layers because that’s what you’ll be doing when you’re actually painting.

The reason we suggest this is because paint colors can look significantly different during different times of the day. At the same time, your flooring color, colors of the furniture around and even the shade of your lighting can drastically affect how the color on your wall will look once it’s painted. So don’t forget to sample the color and wait for a day to see the results!

Listen To Your Gut!

We don’t need to tell you this, but in the hullabaloo and excitement of getting your walls painted, you might just silence that tiny gut feeling you have about something till it’s too late. It happens to all of us, what with a thousand people telling you which color to go with or different magazines telling you that a particular color is more “trendy” or “in fashion” right now.

But don’t let this get to you because it’s your home at the end of the day. You’ve to live there for years to come and we all know that colors are a commitment. So if you’re more inclined towards a particular color, don’t stifle it just because Sandra around the block thinks it’s too loud.

At the same time, asking a few professionals is never out of the question, which is something you can do when you go to pick your paint. This is just for you to get inputs from people who work with colors and can give you information that’s valuable. At the end of the day, it should always be your call to take.

Read Also: Best Home Staging Tips

Conclusion

Don’t let the painting process get stressful because it’s supposed to be fun! Colors can spruce up everything around you and an opportunity to get your walls covered with a fresh coat of paint is one that you won’t get to do often. So make the most of it and select colors that speak to you. In an unlikely scenario that you choose a color that you don’t like later, don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s a wall, after all, and it can be painted over again!

FAQs

Is there an app to help pick paint colors?

Yes, in fact, you’ll find many apps on the market that will help you choose a color of your liking. Behr’s paint app has a unique function where it lets you match different colors by choosing an image from your gallery and clicking on it. You can also enter color numbers or the shade name from a color family and the app will procure it for you.

What colors do not go together?

There are a few colors that you should try your best not to use together and these include brown and black, green and pink, and purple and yellow among others.

What is the wall color trend for 2021?

Neutrals have been and will be the wall color trend for 2021. These inside shades of beige, brown and gray.

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